Her Mission
by lovely ravenclaw
Summary: When Lily recieves a cryptic note, she leaves everything behind in search of her beloved. One shot contest for the Third Floor Corridor.


Disclaimer: I don't own any of this.

A/N: This is for a contest at the Third Floor Corridor, a Harry Potter forum I'm a part of. If you'd like to check it out let me know in a review and I'll give you the URL. Thanks!

**Her Mission:**

The note was brief, but urgent. The parchment was dirty and torn and now, after nearly two hours of pacing the floor, tearstained. As she read and re-read the note, she ran her pale hands over the indentations the quill had left on the back of the parchment. It broke her heart to know he was out there somewhere, alone, probably cold and hungry, while she was here in this warm house, sweet loving baby by her side. He needed her and she knew she would go to him. But how? It would be dangerous, these were dangerous times, but it was worth it, _he _was worth it. Harry gave a shriek from his cradle in the corner and she went to him, abandoning the note.

"What is it baby?" She asked as she picked him up bouncing him up and down a bit to induce one of those toothless baby smiles. He curled one of his tiny pink hands around a lock of her unruly auburn hair. She choked back the tears. It was like Harry knew, knew the way his hands would lose themselves in her hair while they kissed. It was agony.

"Don't worry darling, he'll be back, I'll make sure of that," she whispered to her smart little son. He cooed and gurgled, making her realize that he actually had no idea what was going on, had no idea of the danger, had no idea of her lost love. She laid him back down in his cradle, letting him fall back into his sweet baby innocence.

That night she made the preparations. Harry would stay with James' mother, though she wouldn't tell her where she was going. No need to raise suspicions. She would follow the sparse directions on the note. She sincerely hoped she'd interpreted them correctly. He'd used their "secret language." Neither had used it in years and she'd nearly forgotten it till that half-dead bird dropped the note into her shaking hands. They'd made it up late one night while studying in the library at Hogwarts. They were tired from reviewing for a Potions test and had their heads on the table, close enough to kiss, if they'd wanted to. But they hadn't, not yet. Seeing their childish bit of "secret language" made Lily long for a much more innocent time when all they had to worry about was McGonagall's essay and Slughorn's next party. She sighed and kissed Harry one last time.

"I'll bring him home, I promise."

xxx

Lily knew the place by the scent. It was a strange trait she had picked up, his almost animal ability to identify people by their scents, but that's what she got for hanging out with three animagi and a werewolf most of her Hogwarts career. She heard a moan from within the grove and finally stepped into the clearing to see her beloved, writhing against the bonds that tied him to a boulder. He looked horrible, scarred, tortured, lovely. She ran to him and fell at his feet, running her hands over his twisted body in an attempt to soothe him and prove to herself that he was really there.

"Lily?" He asked through his moans. "Go away. Go Lily. Leave." He hissed. She pulled back for a moment and glanced at the sky.

"No, no it's alright love. It's cloudy--" she tried to explain. But another growl erupted from his throat.

"Go!"

"But your letter--" she started, so confused.

"No Lily. It wasn't me. It's a trap." He barely got the words out before the pops started. Those little pops, indicative of apparation. She looked around, suddenly very scared. How could she have been so naïve? She was married to an Auror for Merlin's sake. And now here she was in the center of a clearing surrounded by approaching Death Eaters. She looked into his honey colored eyes, looking for hope, for a promise, but all she got back was the overwhelming look of love.

"I am so sorry," he whispered. She clung to him as they advanced.

"Oh Remus, I love you."

xxx

Their romance had been an unusual one, to say the least. It was forbidden for all the right reasons and that made it downright delicious. He was a werewolf. He'd told her about it at the end of their 6th year when she demanded to know why, exactly, they could not be together _in that way_. He was surprised, actually, that she had not figured it out on her own. She was so smart, but Remus knew how easy it was to ignore the facts that you didn't want to be true. There was no ignoring the fact that Remus turned into a werewolf once a month though.

When he told her, she cried, then laughed. Only Lily Evans could laugh at the idea of him being a werewolf. She cried "Is that all?" and laughed and kissed him like everything would be ok. When he disengaged her from around his neck his eyes were serious, tragic. A werewolf, he explained, could not support a family. He was not sure if a werewolf could reproduce actually and he knew how she longed to be a mother. From the day he met her she'd already been playing the mother part impeccably. She was the one who would come down at 2 in the morning while the boys were still playing Exploding Snap and shoo them all in to bed. She was the one who scolded them in to staying in the library to study for OWLs while it seemed like everyone else was outside throwing snowballs and teasing Snape. She was the one who would visit him in the hospital wing every month when his "allergies" acted up, bringing him juice and telling him what funny pranks Sirius and James were pulling in his absence. She may have feigned disgust at their mischief, but she really loved it, Remus knew.

That's why, perhaps, it was not such a big surprise when she started dating James in their 7th year. It hadn't been easy, for either of them. But he finally convinced her that she needed someone stable and werewolves were far from stable. She hadn't really loved James, but she fell, quite naturally it seemed to the rest of the world, right into his arms. He'd wanted her for so long and never knew of her relationship with Remus. Sure, he knew they were good friends; they were prefects together after all and spent a lot of their time studying in the library. But he didn't know anything about the time they spent in the Prefect's Bathroom, the Room of Requirement, and even (just once, Lily would remind Remus with a blush) the broom closet outside the Charms classroom on the 3rd floor. Even if he had known, it wouldn't have stopped him from accepting Lily, the one girl he'd loved since the first day he saw her.

While Remus watched his one true love gallivant about on the arm of his best friend, he often found himself wondering what things would have been like had he not been a werewolf at all. The thought, of course, had passed through Lily's mind as well. She never could force herself to stop loving Remus though, even as she fell into a comfortable love with James. Yes, Lily would admit to herself, she did love James. But James would never be Remus. James would never excited Lily the way Remus had. James would never love Lily the way Remus had and James would _certainly_ never understand Lily the way Remus had. Still, she accepted the ring and repeated the vows and they were well on their way to a happily ever after.

Lily had never meant to be unfaithful to James, especially once they were married and most especially once they had Harry. What started as Remus stopping by for tea while James was at work became much much more. Her indiscretions plagued Lily almost daily, but she could not stop. Remus was her addiction. As the war waged on and James spent more and more time away from home on important missions, Remus spent more and more time at Godric's Hollow. It came to the point where Lily actually feared Harry would start calling Remus "Daddy" rather than James. Almost 9 days ago, all contact with Remus had stopped. He had not stopped by and was not returning her owls. This wasn't particularly unusual, especially as the full moon approached, but Lily had a dull ache in her stomach that told her something was very wrong. When she received the weathered parchment all her fears were comfirmed.

And now, here she was clinging to Remus in the center of a grove-Merlin knows where-with Death Eaters approaching. Her eyes were squeezed shut, waiting for the pain, the rush of a spell, anything. Nothing came. She opened one eye tentatively. Then the other, to find a furious looking James standing over her and a circle of knocked out Death Eaters. She smiled inwardly, proud of her husband for taking on at least 12 men, before realizing she was still clinging, rather inappropriately to Remus. She gulped and looked up at James who was looking at her, livid.

"Get up. They'll only be stunned for a few more minutes," he said sternly. She removed her hands from Remus' cold, bruised body. She was trembling all over. "Come on!" He shouted, holding out the newspaper in his hand—obviously a portkey. She was hesitating, looking back at Remus, still tied to the boulder.

"What about him?" She asked. Remus' eyes were begging her to go and forget about him, but she couldn't.

"I don't give a damn about him," James said fiercely. He obviously _knew_, but how, Lily couldn't even imagine. "Now take hold of this or be left at the mercy of the Death Eaters." Lily looked around, the men at her feet were starting to stir. She was so conflicted. She looked at Remus, her love.

"Just go," he murmured, his wolfish head falling, defeated, onto his chest.

"I love you," she told him, but she grabbed hold of the paper anyways, and let herself be whisked back to wedded bliss.


End file.
